Hatred Might Lead to Love
by SuperblyCraftyDinosaurs
Summary: Imagine if Severus was a key player in Lily and James's epic love story. What lengths might he go to to ensure his best friend's happiness? In memory of Alan Rickman. To be considered a multi chapter made up of linked one shots which should one wish they could each be read as separate stories.


**Hatred Might Lead to Love**

 **A/N: I felt the need for a story featuring Snape as a sort of tribute to Alan Rickman. I did intend to post this earlier but I had a sudden burst of perfectionism and I wanted this to be perfect in memory of a man who brought such a complex character to life in the Harry Potter universe. He was such a huge part of my childhood being one of the main characters in my favourite books and later film series; my thoughts are with his family in this sad time.**

 **This is set in a universe where the Death Eaters and Voldemort don't exist so therefore neither does the war but blood purity is still a heavy stigma in society. I do intend for this to be a multi-chaptered story but each chapter could be read as individual one shots on their own should you wish. As such, my update schedule might be a little off kilter for this as school work sets in again.**

 **As always, I don't have anything to do with Harry Potter, the related franchise or characters. The only thing which is my own is my plot which is largely a collection of slightly A/U missing scenes spanning Severus and Lily's friendship along with James and Lily's relationship. Any minor copyright infringements or similarities are entirely unintentional.**

Late Summer…

Sitting underneath the willow trees at the edge of the Black Lake, Severus watched Lily berating those parts that called themselves the Marauders. The ridiculous group consisted of James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and their little tag-a-long Peter Pettigrew. With a wry smile, he watched as Lily stormed over towards him frustration evident on her face. His amusement vanished as he actually saw how mad Lily was. There had been very few times that Severus had attempted to make jokes about whatever had angered Lily while she was so furious and all of those occasions so far had resulted in visits to the hospital wing with various limbs in the wrong place or his hair dyed and hexed to the point of it almost looking like he'd been electrocuted and dipped in a tub of glitter glue. It seemed that all of Lily's pent up anger appeared to channel into uncontrolled wandless magic if given appropriate opportunity.

"Of all the stupid things to do! Those toe rags need to know that they can't hex the girl's dormitories to throw our clothing out into the common room as we're trying to change into it in the mornings!", muttered Lily angrily, throwing herself down rather inelegantly next to her best friend. Under the relative cover of the small glade created by the shade of the willow branches, almost shaking with the force of her anger Lily exploded and half explained why she was so mad at the Marauders to publicly scold them. Usually, his favourite method of punishment was to hex her victim in a way that they'd never know that it was her; in Severus' opinion Lily's creative hexes and jinxes often lead him to believe that she should have been a Slytherin.

"What have you got planned for them, or is it a visit to Professor McGonagall for one of her more inventive detentions with Filch?", Severus asked warily as if the slightest question would cause Lily to direct her anger towards him; as much as he adored Lily there were some times that she genuinely scared him to the point of hiding from her.

"You know Sev, I think my mortification at having my underthings charmed to dance around the common room and describe themselves in a Cockney accent to whoever was in the common room requires a special combination of both. You never know she might revoke their Quidditch or Hogsmeade privileges and make them suffer through one of Filch's more torturous punishments!", explained Lily with a look of maniacal glee showing on her features. Again, Lily's ever-so-slightly vindictive enjoyment in their future suffering him wonder whether or not she should have been a Slytherin. She definitely would have made a very good one.

For years, Severus had had a heart melting crush on his small and fiery best friend but over time it had faded to a more brotherly affection for the younger girl. The protective nature he still felt whenever someone hurt her never failed to flare up, especially when Potter decided to prat about with those lunatics he calls friends. Anything Potter thought up was usually some foolish joke to try and get Lily to magically fall in love with him by making her angry. He'd never attempt to begin to understand what goes on in their heads to make those idiots think such ridiculous ideas were ever good ideas. Moving inside the castle as an unseasonably early dusk began to fall, Severus thought over his friendship with Lily. From when they were children and Lily was showing him that she could charm a flower; to the end of Fifth year when he nearly caused the end of their friendship by calling her a Mudblood after she had tried to intervene in Potter and Black's taunting of him after their Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL exam. Luckily for him, Lily accepted his apology after weeks of begging for forgiveness over summer. After that moment was when he realised that his feelings for Lily were no longer romantic, his hurt feelings had stopped getting in the way of their friendship and they were closer than ever. They were certainly close before, Lily was the only true friend he'd had as a young child and if he was honest until now. Living in Slytherin had shown him that friends made amongst the snakes were not usually friends for life but more a status symbol or an associate one would use to achieve a means to an end.

"Lily, you don't think that the reason the Potter makes you so angry is that you may have feelings for him but you think that he lives to annoy you, is it?", asked Severus calmly as if commenting on the weather. If he spoke like his question was of no importance and easy to answer, Lily wouldn't get mad surely?

"Sev, sometimes I think that I might when he acts like an older brother towards the first years but then other times when he's being a prat and pranking all of the Sixth and Seventh year girls' underwear, I end up seriously rethinking getting my head looked at to see if I'm suffering with the effects of a stray hex or jinx. I don't know what he wants me to think about him anymore.", explained Lily, the slight tone of confusion in her voice suggesting she was only just starting to understand her feelings as she was confessing them to Severus.

"I even think sometimes I want to just turn around and tell him 'Yes, I would love to go out with him' when he starts asking me to go to Hogsmeade with him, but then I turn around and he's doing something stupid and then I end up saying no all the time! It's like he's deliberately trying to make me say no!", exclaimed Lily exasperatedly.

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A few days later…

After receiving a rather cryptic note, Remus found himself walking along the third floor corridor towards an unused classroom. To his surprise, Severus Snape walked out of the shadows to meet a rather shocked Remus.

"What am I needed for Snape? You're currently making me late for Transfiguration and Id rather not be put into detention with Filch for another night.", stated Remus wearily. The full moon was in a couple of days and between his sudden inundation of sleepless nights and unending days of detention, Remus' patience was rapidly wearing thin. Snape was especially the last person he wanted to see in such a mood as he was in. His penchant for riling Remus up over the fact that Snape knew what was constantly playing in Remus' mind. For a short while after Sirius had nearly sent Snape to his death by Remus' hand, he had hated his friend. Should he have hurt Snape – not even contemplating the idea that Remus could have killed or infected him – Remus would never have forgiven himself or Sirius. As it stands nothing serious happened. Remus had forgiven Sirius and their friendship was intact again leaving behind the rather rocky patch they had entered whilst Remus refused to speak to Sirius.

"I'd like to keep this little meeting short Lupin, I have a message from Lily for Potter. As much as I hate to talk to you over-confident Gryffindors, Lily wishes that Potter would realise that whilst she would supposedly love to go out with him she will always refuse him if he continues to act like a prat. That is to say, if Potter continues to act in the mature way he apparently does when he's helping out the younger years Lily would happily go out with him. So if you'd like to tell him to grow up and act his age, my best friend will be happy again and stop shouting at you like a harpy.", Snape said with an air of disinterest. With that he swept out of the dusty room, leaving behind a very confused but determined Remus. Severus had been mulling over the pros and cons of talking with one of the Marauders about Potter's prat-like behaviour towards Lily. In the end, he had decided on approaching Remus because they were able to be most civil to each other after the little incident earlier on in the year. Now he supposed what was done was done and can't be changed; he only hoped Lily would forgive him if his 'plan' blew up in his face.

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That night…

Later on that night in the Gryffindor Sixth Year boys dorm, Remus had dragged James and Sirius away from baiting Lily again remembering what Snape had told him that day. "Prongs – mate, you've got to stop being a dick to Lily. She loves you; she just won't admit it to you when you act like an immature six year old. A little bird told me that should you ask her to Hogsmeade after showing her that you can be a man and act your age that she'd say yes to you without a doubt. No offence to you Sirius, your advice on dating women often leads to one night stands with easy blondes and that's exactly what you don't want Lily thinking. You need to be the upstanding cultured young man your parents raised you to be and all that, help out the First years, don't hex Snape's trousers to fall down every 10 minutes and especially don't humiliate Lily and her friends again.", Remus said. Attempting to get through to his friends he sent a mild stinging hex at James to get his attention back after his mind presumably wandered off in thoughts of Lily. "James, did you actually hear any of that?, Remus asked, resignation colouring his voice.

"Loud and clear, Moony. Act like a grown up and actually show Lily that I like her. I can do that easily mate.", James replied. "Can I go back downstairs and apologise to Lily for hexing her underwear now?", asked James.

"She's not in the common room; it's Thursday. She always spends Thursday evenings in the library with Snape.", interjected Peter as he entered the dorms, "Try tomorrow before she leaves for breakfast, she seems rather agreeable before she's had her morning dose of caffeine."

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About a week later…

In the library, Severus was attempting to admit to Lily what he had said to Lupin. However, Lily's confusion over the fact that for the last week James and his little bunch of tag-a-long toe rags hadn't made it their life's mission to be the cause of her immense humiliation made it hard for her to concentrate on what Severus was saying. There had been no repeats of the underwear incident which she had been expecting but in a more spectacular way. Usually, if she had a strong reaction to one of their pranks it was perfected and repeated within a week.

"Lily, you know I love you and that I would never do anything to hurt you, right?", Severus asked calmly.

"Yes…", Lily replied hesitantly. "Why'd you ask?", she questioned him.

"Well, I may have accidentally-on-purpose sort of told Lupin to force Potter to reign his behaviour in slightly if he ever wanted a chance with you.", Severus said quickly as if to make it so Lily couldn't hear what he was saying properly. If she didn't hear him properly at least he could still say he told her, but she was his best friend and that plan never worked. Knowing from trying such a tactic on her before, lying to her felt like knives in his stomach and he always ended up telling her again anyway so he told her again slowly and carefully to make sure she understood the reasoning behind his plan before she caused sever bodily harm to him or something. "I met with Lupin and told him that if Potter wanted to go out with you he had to earn it by not messing around with you and actually acting like a halfway decent guy.", he said; already bracing himself for the wandless/angry magical outbursts that came with Lily's temper. When it never came, he was so shocked that he looked up at Lily and saw that she had tears in her eyes. Fearing the thought that he had made her cry with his actions, he immediately started apologising hoping that she'd forgive him.

"Severus Snape, I can't believe you'd go behind my back in such a way! You're meant to be my best friend which is exactly why I can't thank you enough.", exclaimed Lily excitedly, "I'm sorry Sev, there's somewhere else I need to be right now!" Hurriedly, Lily ran out of the library, leaving behind all her belongings on the table with a very confused Severus sat on his chair, shocked into not moving. Slowly, he began to pack away his and Lily's things into their respective bags and left their borrowed books on the top of the rather haphazard returns pile; he left the library still shellshocked and followed the path that Lily had taken in her hasty exit. Making progress through the halls, he finally happened upon Lily about to reach James Potter and the rest of his merry band of idiots. The obvious elation and a veritable amount of shock on Potter's face as he saw the object of his desires walking straight at him with a heart-melting smile on her face as she walked straight up to Potter and looked dead into his eyes. Suddenly, she stopped leaving less than six inches between the both of them, she whispered into his ear, "Yes James Potter, I will go out with you."

The exclamation of 'This is the best day ever!' from both Sirius and James broke the tense silence created by memories of Lily and James' previous encounters, many of which would often lead to duels and hexes being thrown. The suspenseful atmosphere only partially broken by the boys shouting, the unspoken wish of everyone present seeming to settle in the air as if the combined hoping of all of the teenagers and the few teachers present made the sound of 'Kiss her, kiss her' audible to everyone there. Or perhaps it was the sheer volume of the thoughts in everyone's head at the same time making those present believe that the sound was carried by the wind.

The gathered audience didn't have to wait long for their hopes to come true as in that instant James closed the distance between him and Lily. Reaching a hand under her chin to tilt her face towards his, he leant down to meet her lips in a soft kiss bound to take her breath away from the force of emotion contained within it. For the onlookers, it was like there was a magical tension crackling in the air causing them to want to move away and give the new couple the privacy but they were frozen on the spot by the force of the magic keeping them in place making them unable to leave. Severus could have sworn he saw Professor McGonagall hand over a small amount of Galleons to Professor Flitwick, glee apparent on both of their faces as two of their favourite students – never mind how mischievous James could be given the right opportunity – finally got together.

As James and Lily broke apart from each other, the clapping and cheering started. Shouts of 'We're so happy for you' and 'Oh, you two make such a cute couple, don't you think they make such a cute couple' could be heard as people finally felt able to move away from the scene.

If Severus himself wasn't mistaken (and he was rarely mistaken) he could have sworn he heard Professor Flitwick turn to Professor McGonagall and say, "Albus did keep saying that the magic between the two of them was strong. It was evident from the explosive nature of their fights but I'd previously thought it would remain as just that fighting not that rather heated display. I don't think I have the heart to remove points for their transgression of the rules. If we'd have asked Sybil, I reckon she'd have told us this was in their future or something of the such like."


End file.
